We attended a Halloween event for our local nature preserve. They really did a wonderful job preparing the walking trail for young children reenacting the Wizard of Oz. First you are greeted by Glenda the good witch who introduces you to Dorothy. Dorothy lead us along the trail to meet the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion. The volunteers performing were very much into their characters and were very entertaining. Then the end of the trail we were greeted with this:

Meeting the Wicked Witch and her Flying Monkey! Thankfully EDad was with me but poor EBoy would have been freaked out if it had just been me there. I love my nature preserve but I’ll have to let them know maybe a Witch that was just a little less green would have been good for the under 7 crowd. Most of the kids were fine but a couple definitely freaked a bit. The flying Monkey was hilarious though- she could barely do her jumps and monkey dance without cracking up so she did balance the scary Witch a bit.

They also had the perfect little pumpkins set up to finally get a decent pumpkin picture but of course no one wanted to sit with the pumpkins. So I got the best shots I could and called it a day.

This was the facepainter for the event- I loved her wings aren’t they cool?:

Fingerpaint tree:

Halloween cat:

Pumpkin window decoration:

I have great news! Even with little obstacles like cheesecake I’m officially down 6 pounds. I would like to thank Mother of Twins for her assistance- because of her posts on hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup I have been an active follower of what I like to refer to as the Gross Out Diet.

The Gross Out Diet entails reading labels to foods and if you find that hydrogenated oils are on the list of ingredients you immediately visualize the item as being covered with a huge glistening glob of Crisco. It makes it impossible to buy or eat anything with the bad stuff in it- trust me I’ve tried but I just get too grossed out. Hopefully this will be a lifelong change, I find it pretty easy to resist tempation when I’m grossed out by it.

For years I had a great love of frosting. If you had one of those grocery store bought cakes that with a slice layered a mile high in frosting on all sides it was MINE. And I was going to eat every single last fluffy bit of sugary frosting goodness. That was until my husband took his first cake decorating class. One day he was working on frosting and making his own roses when I noticed he was working with an interesting looking substance. Turns out all most frostings are is Crisco and sugar. I have not touched store bought frosting ever since. I still can’t believe all the years I would scrape oreos with my teeth not realizing it might as well just be a Crisco sandwich.

The other part of my loss is I have been getting in more regular workouts including some spinnning classes. EDad has been coming home and watching both boys so I can get a good hour at the gym. I go if for no other reason than its my break to talk to other people- actual adults who aren’t fixated on things like Spiderman or building lego mountains (not that both aren’t great but after the 50th conversation of the day it gets a little tiring).

Thanks MOT and Gross Out Diet(and of course EDad for his constant support). It really started as just wanting to offer healtier choices for my children but I came to realize what if all those ingredients are what makes it so impossible for me to drop pounds while being so easy to gain? I’ve never lost weight easily so this 6 pounds is something that encourages me profoundly. Even if no more weight is lost I’m happy to know that I’m finally learning to make healthier choices.

Have I ever mentioned that one of EDad’s specialities is baking homemade cheesecake? Bask in the fall harvest goodness of his delectable pumpkin cheesecake:

He perfected his cheesecake after EBoy was born, dilligently making individual sized cheesecakes of all varieties until he got it all down to a science. Let’s just say my postpartum blues were well compensated for with creamy cheesecake goodness but my weight never quite recovered. Because of my hips he’s now only allowed to make them for special occasions- this little beauty was a trial one since he’s planning what he’s going to make for our upcoming Thanksgiving family get together.

People wonder how we keep such a very happy marriage- then they taste his cheesecake and totally understand.

7. I believed in Santa Claus until I was 8 or 9 and was so crushed when I accidently discovered my Christmas gifts early (parents had left them out in their room)- I wasn’t upset that Santa didn’t exist but I was sad to lose the magic of believing in something so impossible

EBoy meeting Santa for the first time:

So many parents nowadays are concerned with telling their children truth as far as Christmas goes. They either want true recognition of where the gifts are coming from, don’t want the worry of hurt feelings later, or for a myriad of reasons just don’t feel the need for Santa. I will most certainly be doing Santa Claus traditions with my children. I adored the magic of Christmas and though I was very dissapointed to find out Santa was not real- I was happy that I got to go for so long believing in something so special.

According to many of my friends I suppose you could call me the gullible one. I don’t have any problems with being called gullible because I can’t help that I want to trust and believe in the goodness of others just as I believe in myself. There was one time it turned on me a bit- I remember having nightmares for awhile when my Dad insisted to me that my Mom has eyes in the back of her head. Can you imagine extra eyeballs just rolling around and blinking underneath someone’s hair? The thought terrified me so I made sure to never stare too closely at the back of her head lest one of those eyes show itself.

I’ll never forget the first time when I was 4 years old and my best friend Mary taught me cross my heart, hope to die stick a needle in my eye. I must have spent 30 minutes wandering around the house trying to find a needle because I insisted I must prove that I could keep her secret (to this day I’m soooo glad my Mom didn’t leave needles out in my reach). Mary told me many wonderful explanations for various things- my favorite being that the reason that women get pregnant is they swallow a little tiny baby acorn and *boom* a baby grows in their belly! Yes yes I did try swalling a teenie round baby acorn- took 24 years for that doggone acorn to finally produce EBoy